Drinks company Stock Spirits plans debut London share float

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Harriet Green

Stock Spirits, which owns a number of vodka brands and other alcoholic beverages, announced its intention to go ahead with an initial public offering of shares to institutional investors in October. (Release)

The company, whose main markets are Poland, the Czech Republic and Italy, wants to raise £52m from new shares in order to reduce debt.

US private equity group Oaktree Capital Management, the majority-owner of Stock Spirits, will also be selling shares in the offering but will remain the largest share holder.

Company revenue for the first half of 2013 was €153.1m (£128.8m), up from €134.4m (£108.2m) in the same period last year, while core earnings also up for the same period - €34.3m (£28.83m) compared with €28.5m (£23.97m) a year earlier.

Banks JP Morgan and Nomura are acting as joint global co-ordinators and joint bookrunners on the initial public offering, and investment bank Jefferies is also a joint bookrunner.